The True Definition of Transcendentalism and It’s Founder

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What is the true meaning of transcendentalism and where did it come from? Ralph Waldo Emerson is the reason transcendentalism sprouted out of nowhere. As a child, he was always obedient and followed the steps his mom and aunt had laid out for him. Then in his mid-20’s,he received a job from the Boston’s Second Church,a few years later resigned, and began taking steps towards the transcendentalism. Now, decades later, his ideas and thoughts are still popular and used everyday. The true definition of transcendentalism begins with Emerson and his individual thoughts about non-conformity with the society. Transcendentalism came along around the 1820s-1830s, with Ralph Waldo Emerson being named the father, he the movement of individualism, intuition, inspiration, idealism, and imagination.

From patiently obeying his parents, to making decisions on his own, Emerson's childhood was pretty busy. When he was just eight years old, Emerson’s father had died. His aunt Moody, then took the father role in the family, and set strict steps to where Ralph would take toward his future. She kept the family in line and on task, making them attend school and keeping the house neat. Emerson’s aunt Moody was his most powerful influence throughout the rest of his childhood.

The first step in Emerson’s careerbuilder was to go to school, so he was entered into Harvard at the age of fourteen. His educational experience carried him through his teens, and around the age of twenty-five, he was still following the path his mother and aunt had dug out for him. Emerson had been accepted for a job at Boston's Second Church. He worked at that ministry for several years, and then his transcendentalist side began to appear.

Emerson’s imaginative and independe...

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...him. His middle-aged life had then sparked the fire of his transcendentalist personality. The most influential pieces Emerson wrote that are still looked at and inspiring to other transcendentalists, were Self-Reliance and Nature. The idea of transcendentalism began around the 1820s-1830s when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about his ideas about self development, non-conformity, and the individual thought process.

Works Cited

http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/ http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/emerson/ralph_waldo_emerson.html http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=2598 http://www2.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/17841865/lit/emerson.htm http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/literaryworks http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/ralph_waldo_emerson.html https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3460613-nature

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